“Home or Holy Land is everywhere we are.”
As we recognize Indigenous Peoples Day (formerly Columbus Day) I’m struck by how much has changed and in some cases, how little. First some context – the US originally recast Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day to pay homage to the people who were living in America when Columbus “discovered” this land. It was an attempt to honor the culture of indigenous people versus attempting to erase or denigrate their culture – which has been a common strategy of discoverers and conquerors for a millennium. Instead of respecting the different cultures and human aspects we meet, folks often just discount what is not familiar.
In the face of that I want to acknowledge the experience CSL Capistrano Valley is having, renting meeting space from a Baha’i community.
When our community sold our building, we stepped into that sacred in-between — the liminal space between what was and what’s next.
We didn’t yet know where we’d land. But we trusted that Spirit did.
Both communities have different morays and practices yet ostensibly we have very similar values and principles.
A Sanctuary of Welcome
Like fertile soil receiving a wandering seed, the Baha’i community of San Clemente opened their doors and rented us their space for our Sunday celebration.
They didn’t ask us to change our name or our teachings.
They simply said, “Come as you are.”
They made room.
It seems to me this is what Mother Earth does.
She receives every seed, every color of flower, every rhythm of life — never saying, “You don’t belong here – or you have to change.”
The soil doesn’t reject the acorn because it’s not a rose seed.
The sky doesn’t say there are too many clouds.
The Earth welcomes, transforms, and nourishes — that’s her divine nature.
The Nature of Spirit
And so it is with Spirit.
Our new space became for us what the Earth is for all life: fertile ground.
Not competition, but cooperation.
Not separation, but shared belonging.
Above ground, we may look like two distinct trees — CSL and the Baha’i community — but beneath the surface, our roots intertwine, exchanging strength and holding the hillside steady.
That’s what sacred companionship looks like.
That’s what home feels like.
The True Glow Up
Home isn’t about property lines or square footage.
It’s wherever love makes room.
It’s wherever open hearts meet.
That’s how we put the holy in holy land.
This week as we honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day, let’s consider Chief Seattle’s words when Washington purchased land from his tribe.
“Every part of the earth is sacred…
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat…
Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.”
May we care for our community and our planet with the same reverence — tending both like gardens of the soul.
Tending the Soil Within
As Ernest Holmes reminds us:
“The Intelligence in the creative soil of the earth will produce as many for us as we ask, when we plant the seed of that which we wish to have created.”
When we tend the soil of our minds — with faith, gratitude, and generosity — we experience our own spiritual glow up.
We remember that we have a choice and can build fortresses and easily as building a field. Let us choose to create spaces that are inclusive — a field big enough for all of us to grow, together.
A Blessing for Bringing the Holy to Holy Land
May we continue to plant seeds of love wherever we go.
May our gratitude make holy ground beneath our feet.
And may our home — the one we carry in our hearts — expand until it includes the whole world.
Namaste
